Ask Dayton 105 – We Dare Talk About Vanguard

Ask Dayton 105 – We Dare Talk About Vanguard

Dear Dayton,

When you, Kevin, and Dave were writing the Vanguard series, it seemed that it would be the last time we would be seeing many of the characters aboard the Endeavour and the Sagittarius. Many people died throughout Vanguard as a result of it. Now, with Seekers picking up where Vanguard left off, I wonder if there are any characters you could have saved for use in Seekers?

Thanks

Why the hell are we talking about Vanguard? Don’t we know we’re not supposed to be talking about Vanguard? What’s the First Rule of Vanguard, kids? That’s right. Say it with me: “You Do Not Talk About Vanguard.”

Admiral Nogura’s gonna be pissed at us if he finds out we’ve been talking about Vanguard. You know that, right?

Eh, fuck it. Let’s talk about Vanguard.

For those of you who aren’t dialed into the finer points of Star Trek novel geekery, Vanguard as created by editor Marco Palmieri and author David Mack is a series of books that served as a “literary spin-off” of the original Star Trek television series. No, not David Mack the Kabuki artist, but hey! He really, really loves it when you make that joke, because he’s never, ever heard it. Like ever, at least not in the last five minutes or so.

Anyway, Vanguard was set aboard a space station in a hotly contested area of space called “the Taurus Reach.” After Dave set events into motion with the series’ first book, Harbinger, Kevin Dilmore and I were invited aboard to help continue the story. Over the course of seven novels and a handful of novellas, the series’ cast of characters (and holy shit, were there a lot of them) dug up all sorts of trouble and generally pissed off some very powerful aliens who didn’t much like being dug up and pissed off.

As the story unfolded over those novels and novellas, several characters met tragic ends, and a couple got what they fuckin’ had comin’ to ‘em. At the time, those of us writing Vanguard stories didn’t think much of this, as we were marching to the endgame we more or less had plotted all along. I say “more or less” because while there was a sort of blueprint Dave set up at the beginning, we ended up adding a lot of new ideas and whatnot as each new book was developed.

Because sometimes, new shit comes along that you like better than the other shit, that’s why.

Then, once Vanguard was over and done, wrapped and topped with a pretty little bow and with us thinking we all would move on to other things, we got the bright idea to take some of the leftover toys back out of the box and see if we couldn’t come up with a new game to play. The results of this freestyle, caffeine and alcohol-driven brainstorming is a little something we like to call Star Trek: Seekers.

So, now that we have our new little corner of the Star Trek sandbox in which to cavort, do we wish we hadn’t been quite so bloodthirsty in the Vanguard books, and perhaps spared some of our favorite characters who didn’t make it to the end of that series?

Speaking only for myself? Nope.

We did what we wanted to do with Star Trek Vanguard: Craft a sweeping tale with a defined beginning, middle, and ending, and once we were done, we wanted to place it on a proverbial shelf and be able to point to it and say, “Yeah, we did that, and we’re damned proud of it.” The characters who died, and those who survived and yet still paid heavy personal costs, did so in service to the story we wanted to tell. I won’t speak for Dave or Kevin, or Marco or Margaret Clark, but while I might think we could have done this or that thing better, I have no regrets about how it all ended up. As far as I’m concerned, the stories of Vanguard’s core cast have been told. Within the fictional construct of the Star Trek universe, their reward—and penance—for what happened over the course of those novels and novellas is to be consigned to obscurity; footnotes to a history about which few people ever will know the complete truth.

Out here in the real world, and while I certainly could come up with ideas for new stories for each of those characters, I have no immediate desire to do so. I know Dave and Kevin feel the same way, and we’ve all agreed to leave those characters be, while pledging to level basketball-sized stink-eyes on anyone else who dares to give it a go. Our self-imposed compromise for this is the crews of the Endeavour and the Sagittarius, who really were only supporting players in the Vanguard saga and who now get to take center stage in Seekers. Any stories we choose to tell which might pull on a dangling Vanguard plot thread can—we believe—be handled by the characters from those ships, so that’s the way it’s going to be, at least so long as we have anything to say about it.

Okay, we’re done here. No more talking about Vanguard, because while I don’t know about you, I sure as shit don’t want Admiral Nogura coming to punch me in the junk.

Mike Medeiros is a great storyteller in his own mind. He’s been known to put words to page and sometimes, he even turns them into audio stories for himself, his friends and the occasional stranger that stumbles upon his stuff by accident. He has written, writes, and will write for Gates of Sto’vo’kor, Blood of the Neirrh, Star Trek: Starfinder, The Klingons of Long Island, Reality’s Edge, and Zygerus. Some of his stories and other writings have materialized on websites and forums for the G & T Show, Priority One, ScienceFiction.com, Star Trek Online, and even Star Trek.com. He’s written a few playable missions for Star Trek Online and has even had a couple of them spotlighted. He keeps saying he’s working on a novel, but is he really? A comic book is more likely. If only he could make money flinging ink at the screen, he’d be a happy camper.

But, wait. There’s more.

He is the co-owner of Busy Little Beaver Productions and is the producer and co-host for G & T Show and Gates of Sto’vo’kor. He’s directed voice actors, and produced and edited audio podcasts and dramas because he doesn’t have the face for video. He plays well with others and is always on the look out for the next project, the next thing, the next next. If he wasn’t working on something with a half dozen other projects waiting in the wings, somebody please check to make sure he’s still breathing.

During the day, he’s a mild-mannered computer repair man who dabbles in web design in his small, rural, Central California community. He lives with his lovingly dysfunctional family and loyal canine companion and spends most of his time in the closet concocting some hair-brained scheme or another. He’s got an unhealthy obsession with Lego video games, Klingons, and Star Trek Online that borders on the neurotic.

Despite all this, he still finds the time to write the words. Find out what he's doing here.

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

Michael Medeiros

Mike Medeiros is a great storyteller in his own mind. He’s been known to put words to page and sometimes, he even turns them into audio stories for himself, his friends and the occasional stranger that stumbles upon his stuff by accident. He has written, writes, and will write for Gates of Sto’vo’kor, Blood of the Neirrh, Star Trek: Starfinder, The Klingons of Long Island, Reality’s Edge, and Zygerus. Some of his stories and other writings have materialized on websites and forums for the G & T Show, Priority One, ScienceFiction.com, Star Trek Online, and even Star Trek.com. He’s written a few playable missions for Star Trek Online and has even had a couple of them spotlighted. He keeps saying he’s working on a novel, but is he really? A comic book is more likely. If only he could make money flinging ink at the screen, he’d be a happy camper.
But, wait. There’s more.
He is the co-owner of Busy Little Beaver Productions and is the producer and co-host for G & T Show and Gates of Sto’vo’kor. He’s directed voice actors, and produced and edited audio podcasts and dramas because he doesn’t have the face for video. He plays well with others and is always on the look out for the next project, the next thing, the next next. If he wasn’t working on something with a half dozen other projects waiting in the wings, somebody please check to make sure he’s still breathing.
During the day, he’s a mild-mannered computer repair man who dabbles in web design in his small, rural, Central California community. He lives with his lovingly dysfunctional family and loyal canine companion and spends most of his time in the closet concocting some hair-brained scheme or another. He’s got an unhealthy obsession with Lego video games, Klingons, and Star Trek Online that borders on the neurotic.
Despite all this, he still finds the time to write the words. Find out what he's doing here.